In 2019, he was dismissed from his posts, expelled from the Communist Party and sentenced to life in prison for corruption.

Nur Bekri was born in a village near Kazakhstan in an area under the jurisdiction of Bole (known in Uyghur as "Bortala"), Xinjiang.

He spent only one year in high school before taking the university entrance examinations, and scored highest in his township.

As Chairman, Bekri was nominally Xinjiang's top government official, but in practice was subordinate to the Communist Party Secretary for the region, Wang Lequan (term 1994–2010), then Zhang Chunxian (2010 onwards).

[5] As the highest ranked ethnic Uyghur official in the Xinjiang government, Bekri toed the party line on issues related to Xinjiang independence, often issuing official denunciations of what the government saw as religious extremism or terrorism.

Under Bekri's leadership, the NEA pledged massive investment into renewable energy, and closed down over 100 coal-fired power plants.

He did not gain a seat on the 19th Central Committee despite not having reached retirement age, raising speculation in 2017 that he had fallen out of favor.

The public prosecutors accused him of taking bribes directly or via others money and property worth more than 79.1 million yuan ($11.5 million) serving in his various positions between 1998 and 2018 in return for assisting certain organizations and individuals with their business operations, project contracting and job promotion or transfer and trading power for sex.

[9] On 2 December, Nur Bekri was sentenced to life in prison by Shenyang Intermediate People's Court for bribery worth more than 79.1 million yuan ($11.5 million) during his term as head of the energy administration, deputy chief of the Ürümqi committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang, mayor of Ürümqi and chairman of the region.

[13][14] All of his private property was ordered confiscated, and the money and related interests that he had received in the form of bribes will be turned over to the national treasury.